STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A contestant at the Miss New York pageant has "dropped out" of the competition after becoming ill, pageant organizers say.

Kate Perkins, a Brooklynite and Miss Five Boroughs, will not be able to take part in the competition, according to Jim Thompson, executive board member of the Miss New York organization.

"Unfortunately, we have a contestant that is ill and we're sending her home," Thompson said.

Thompson declined to elaborate on her condition. But police were on the scene at the St. George Theatre for Miss Perkins' exit.

"The police were there as security, because we have an ill contestant and she needed to go home," Paul Brown, director of operations for the pageant, said. "We just felt from the theater's standpoint that it was better to have security involved."

Brown said Perkins had not been disqualified, but was somewhat reluctant to drop out.

"She was very up in the air about whether she was really capable of doing it," Brown said.

One pageant source said Miss Perks has several negative encounters with her roomate and producers this week, but characterized such occurrences as normal.

The source said she had been vomiting this morning and went back to the hotel before going home.